BP refinery back in operation
BLAINE, Wash. – A BP refinery in Washington state that shut down after a Feb. 17 fire has resumed normal operations.
BP spokesman Scott Dean in Chicago said Thursday that repairs and maintenance were completed in May at the Cherry Point refinery near Blaine.
The three-month outage has been cited as one reason that gasoline prices have been higher on the West Coast than the rest of the nation. But other factors also go into the price of gasoline, including increased demand for summer driving.
BP Cherry Point is the third-largest refinery on the West Coast. It produces 20 percent of Washington’s gasoline needs and supplies the majority of jet fuel for Sea-Tac, Portland and Vancouver, B.C., airports.
Demand for refinancings soars
LOS ANGELES – This year’s spate of record low mortgage rates have led borrowers to refinance into 15-year loans at a pace not seen in a decade.
Freddie Mac’s long-running survey of what lenders are offering to solid borrowers showed the traditional 30-year fixed-rate loan averaging 3.75 percent this week, down from 3.78 percent last week and the fifth straight week of record lows.
More eye-catching was the average offering rate for a 15-year fixed loan, which dropped from 3.04 percent to 2.97 percent – the first sub-3 percent reading in the nearly 21 years that Freddie has tracked that type of loan.
Google book suit a class-action
NEW YORK – A federal judge in New York has granted class certification to authors challenging Internet search leader Google over its plans for the world’s largest digital library.
Judge Denny Chin ruled in a written decision Thursday that class action is “more efficient and effective than requiring thousands of authors to sue individually.” He said requiring each author to sue Google Inc. would risk disparate results in nearly identical lawsuits and exponentially increase the cost of litigation.
The Authors Guild had sought class certification. Google already has scanned more than 20 million books for the project. The judge rejected Google’s attempt to toss the guild from the case.
United cutting Houston jobs
United Airlines will cut 1,300 jobs and reduce flying in Houston after losing a fight to block Southwest Airlines Co. from adding international flights there.
United uses Bush Intercontinental Airport to funnel passengers between U.S. destinations and to Latin America. On Wednesday, the city council ignored United’s protests and voted to let Southwest offer international flights from Hobby Airport if it will pay the $100 million cost of adding new gates and a customs facility.
Southwest said its first flights to Latin America and the Caribbean won’t leave Hobby until 2015, but United’s reaction to the council decision was much quicker.
In a memo to employees, United CEO Jeff Smisek said the airline will cut passenger-carrying capacity in Houston by 10 percent starting this fall, which will result in 1,300 lost jobs.
“Unfortunately, the city of Houston will suffer the consequences of this decision for decades to come,” Smisek said.
Talbots chain going private
HINGHAM, Mass. – The struggling women’s clothing chain Talbots is being taken private by Sycamore Partners for about $193.3 million in cash, an abrupt turnaround after buyout talks appeared to stall last week.
Talbots said Thursday that its stockholders will receive $2.75 per share, which is less than the $3.05 per share previously offered by the private equity firm but more than double Wednesday’s closing price of $1.29. It’s also a 76 percent premium to the closing price on December 6, when Sycamore made its first offer of $3 per share.
The Hingham, Mass., retailer has about 70.3 million outstanding shares, according to FactSet.